Martha Sinkula

Hi all!!  This is a warning….I am a novice; do not attempt to help me. I will screw up on my own!!  Mike set this up for me; I am excited to use this to communicate with friends and family.  I might actually be able to have success….or, maybe not!

MUSINGS…………….

I really love gadgets; I love technology; I’m fascinated by how things work. I ask questions when I don’t know something. I listen to my auto and know when something is not right. I can’t fix a modern car, but I certainly know when I should get my car to the mechanic. As a kid, I watched and then helped my dad tinker with radios and old TVs. I watched him fix anything needed in the house. I believe that I had the talent to figure things out if given the chance and enough time. I liked math and had to work very hard to get a decent grade in the four years of high school math; I was one of a few girls in chemistry classes in high school and the only girl in all the physics classes. (you youngsters must remember that I was born before the first boomers…..girls were not encouraged to do the things I wanted to do.) I could learn codes; when he came home from WWII, my dad taught me the Morse code when I was 3 yrs old.  So….I know I can learn things that challenge me. 

I come from the generation of educators that were given the first Apple machines in the late 70’s and early 80’s which were called “microcomputers.” There was no mouse to quickly move the cursor around. Instead, a combination of typed in prompts made the machine work. In 1983, I wrote my Master’s Thesis on the possibility that special needs kids could identify components of the Apple–the monitor, keyboard,the floppy disk and drive, and the magical tractor fed dot matrix printer. I was successful in introduction of special needs learners to the latest technology of the time.

As the years passed, technology grew exponentially; I learned the things that I needed to do my job with the kids. Somewhere between 1999-2000, I felt further and further behind. When the common computer world became the world of multiple functions in multiple formats and designs that could do a gazillion things at once, I was still operating simple e-mail and word processing documents. I could make a very simple spread sheet. As my job became more specific, serving the legal needs of my caseload and teaching needs of the staffs, I focused more and more on the creation of documents that identified needs, reported on, and facilitated appropriate services of the students. There wasn’t much time to learn a lot of new procedures and techniques. I continued to feel more and more frustrated with not being able to use the technology and gadgets that I knew I would love.

Then, finally came retirement…..I could focus some of my time on learning new things. One of the most exciting was to take a beginning Mac class.  I finally had an opportunity in an environment where there were people who were eons behind me. The young instructor was the age of my adult children. He was so very patient, repeating, going over procedures,etc., that  I finally had a more firm grasp on what I needed to know to get where I wanted to get. Having a talented son who is a computer wizard, as well as living with a very gifted and talented person who taught himself how to design web pages, I was surrounded by knowledge that was way too much with which I could connect. I had years of learning bits and pieces of info that made my conceptual framework full of holes. The  ”AHA!” was a great feeling..BUT..as I learned more, I learned how much I didn’t know. 

Like my dad, I was always the family photographer; my children groan with the memories of waiting for me to get all the settings of the 35 mm Pentax just right. I did succeed, and had the reputation of being a good photographer. We have a cabinet full of great slides of numerous vacations and rights of passage. However, after meeting my special professional photographer in 1996, I retired my cameras, and, I guess, stunting my knowledge by an unfortunate default.

Then again retirement popped up and I joined the digital age. I now get it, that I can take my digital images and put them on my desktop, in i photo, flash drive, print them out at home, or better yet, have COSTCO or CVS do it. Much better even, hard copies are really no longer needed with all the on line photo services. I can up load and send my pictures as e-mail attachments. I have that same wonderful young instructor to thank for all the fun I’ve had this past year with digital.

Another love of mine is music, both instrumental and vocal. I played the flute and piccolo in school and also learned the basics of piano. All these years I’ve waited for the time to be able to enjoy participation in music; I can now use itunes to enjoy music; I am learning to use Garage Band….I want to get back to piano through a good electronic keyboard…….oh, how my feeling have changed this last year!!!  I have to thank technology education. I can dream of an ipod nano touch or perhaps a future generation iphone!  I still have a long way to go, but feel that I can get somewhere, and more importantly, enjoy the process. Thanks Mike, for giving me an opportunity.